I’m happy to announce that the winner of the giveaway is Susan! Congratulations, and I look forward to making your sleeve for you. If you didn’t win, you can still contact me to have a custom sleeve made, or purchase this lovely gray one, which is currently in my shop, haramis.etsy.com.

If you are a knitter, I’d also like to note that the pattern is available for free, Cabled iPad Sleeve. Thanks for your comments!

It’s that time, finally. As I’ve mentioned, the yarn I’d originally set aside for this giveaway was re-purposed for an emergency Christmas present (not mine; I’m a planner), so this giveaway, which I’d intended to do in December, was unavoidably delayed. This isn’t all bad, as I’m delighted to announce that this giveaway is now helping me celebrate a new step in my love of knitting. I’ve opened haramis.etsy.com, a shop specializing in well-made handknit goods out of lovely fibers, so please take a peek!

As to the sleeve I had intended to offer, I considered what to use for it instead of the absent yarn, when an idea occurred to me. Why not run with the fact that I don’t have yarn on hand? So, instead of offering a pre-made sleeve, I’m offering a custom sleeve. The winner can select any in-stock skein of Malabrigo Merino Worsted at Eat. Sleep. Knit.. This allows me to do something else different as well. I wrote the initial pattern to have a flap because the Kindle Sleeve does, but I know some people are not flap fans, so I’m also offering a choice of flap or no flap.

Leave me a comment telling me about your favorite hand-knit item and some contact info. I will select the winner by random number generator at noon EST in one week, on 02/11/11.

After taking a fairly good break from Christmas knitting, I picked it back up at the end of October. I actually was working on it so diligently, that I likely would have finished it before December if I hadn’t kept adding more projects to my list.

Continuing the Malarigo love, I next knit my seventh (?) pair of Leslie Friend‘s toasty. The project was called Apricot Toast, a nod to the yarn colorway, and was knit for Bettye’s Christmas present; she fell in love with the color when we were shopping for yarn for her Melody shawls. They were knit on US7/4.5mm. I’d like to note that I find the intended 11″ length for the pattern a little long, so I usually chop off 1.5”, making it a total of 9.5”, and placing the thumb at 6.5″.

The next thing I knit was the already shared Cabled iPad Sleeve, but I mention it here because I’d like to note that I’m still planning on doing a giveaway for a sleeve. I used the yarn I had set aside for it for a last-minute gift, so I haven’t knit it yet, but I now have something special planned for it, so please do check back in February for details.

Somewhere during this time, Bettye requested another baby hat. I decided to tackle Knotty Baby Hat again. I called the project Knottier and used my gauge and math (see your math teacher was right, it does have practical applications) to tinker with the patterns so that they would fit for the specific sizes I needed. The first was a 6-12M size in Knit Picks Felici in Rainbow (a discontinued colorway). I was aiming for a 14”-16” head, 13.5” unstretched on 2.25 mm at 8spi, so I cast on 108 and knit 5.5” before starting the points. The second hat was intended to match Sofia’s handspun mittens. I adjusted it for a toddler size in Felici Sport in Sorcery for an 18-20” head, 17” unstretched on 3.25 mm at 6spi, so I cast on of 104, for a length of 6.5” before the points.

My complaint the first time I knit the hat was that the shift in the pattern to knit the points moved the “seam” line from the side to front and center; basically, the mild ladder that comes from even fairly tight circular knitting is now on display. This is easily fixable. Instead of following the pattern directions, halve the amount of the knit stitches (30 to 15, for example), and then put all the other bits on stitch markers as directed, and then you have another 15 live stitches which are the other half of the point. Your seam stays in the same place, and when you knit across the back set of the stitches (now it’s own round), each point has the same number of rows.

Here we are in October (What do you mean it looks like January?). I’ve already shared the first thing I finished, which was the Cabled Kindle Sleeve, but that was actually a small break from a much larger project, which was four Melody’s Shawls. I love knitting these things; they are the potato chip of knitting. You knit in lace on large needles in a stockinette tube until you run out of yarn, and then just chop it apart. My project, Melody Stack, was for Bettye’s Christmas gifts and knit in Malabrigo Lace in Blue Surf and Vermillion on US 9/5.5mm. I used 1.5 skeins per shawl, for a total of about 700 yards each.

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The second project I’d like to share was also done for someone else. As part as a swap, I crocheted a delightful set of Star Wars amigurumi from the patterns of Lucy Ravenscar. They took varying amounts of time from a couple of hours for a small Yoda to a couple of days for a giant furry Chewbacca. They were mostly done in Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton, with some fill-in from Knit Picks for a few hard-to-find colors, like robot gray. I actually tried several yarns for Chewbacca’s fur before finally settling on Hobby Lobby Bamboospun because it was firm enough to crochet but furry enough to brush out into a really nice coat. All were done with a 3.75 mm/F hook.

Right, so I didn’t update again for the whole of October, even after I said I would, and I haven’t shared any projects that were knitted after August. What have I been up to then? Knitting! I’ve made a huge dent in my Christmas knitting, and I’m beginning to think, maybe too optimistically, that I could even be done before December rolls around. We’ll see.

I also purchased a Kindle, which I love, love, love. I ordered a pretty handmade case for it from etsy from an unfortunately backlogged seller, which left me with the question of how to cover it until my other case arrived. I was seriously looking around, trying to remember if I had a case on hand or a project bag that would work as a substitute, when I remembered that I am a knitter. Right. I made up a snug offset cable case knit out of some leftover Mal Worsted in Geranio.

The pattern is pretty straightforward, but I thought I’d share it if anyone else would like to make one!

I wanted a snug fit, so I calculated that in would be about for a unstretched fit it the case would need 44-48 sts, and cast on 40. If you wanted a less snug fit, you could add an 8 extra purl stitches, one more in each purl section, or an extra two knit stitch on each of the side panels. These instructions can also be used to adapt the pattern to the Nook which is .2″ wider and .2″ longer than the Kindle 3, and by also adding an additional .5″ of height on the sleeve.

Adaptations for the new Kindles: For the smaller no-keypad Kindle, subtract 1″ (2 cm) from the original total height of 8.5″ (21 cm) to 7.5″ (19 cm) and for the Kindle Touch, subtract .5″ (1 cm) to 8″ (20 cm) for the total length. The Kindle Fire is almost the exact same dimensions as the Kindle 3, and should fit in this pattern as written.

2 x 2 Left Cross:

With a cable needle: Slip two stitches purlwise onto cable needle, hold in front, knit next two stitches, knit the two stitches from the cable needle.

Without a cable needle: Slip two stitches, purlwise to the right-hand needle, knit next two stitches and transfer to RH needle. Slip LH needle into first two stitches from the front, slip RH needle out of stitches 3 and 4, and then back into these two stitches behind stitches 1 and 2, knit stitches 1 and 2. (I learned this technique here.)

Bind off 20 stitches and then continue in pattern across the back, now working flat with WS (odd rows) knit as: P2, K1, P4, K1, P4, K1, P4, K1, P2.

Continue for approximately 2.25″ (6 cm), and then work RS button-hole row as K2, P1, K4, P1, K2, YO, K2tog, P1, K4, P1, K2. Mine happened to be on a row 6, which put the middle twist two rows above it, and it looks great, so you may want to aim for that.

Knit in pattern for another .5″ (1.5 cm), and then bind off. I chose to single-crochet around the flap to reinforce it, but that is optional. I did it without breaking the yarn by binding off on the RS, single crocheting down the left side, slip stitching back up, slip stitching across the top, single crocheting down the right side, slip stitching back to the top, and then finishing off on the top right side of the flap. You could so this in knitting by picking up and knitting the stitches, and then knitting across them for a couple of rows of garter.

I’ve decided to add a new note on how to block this pattern. Since the body is intended to stretch to fit, it does not need to be blocked, but the top really does look better if it’s been blocked, so what I do is slip the Kindle into the completed sleeve then place it flat on my blocking board and pin the flap so that it matches the dimensions of the case now that it’s stretched; the pins should be placed around the edges and will look like half of a square. I then carefully slip the Kindle out of the sleeve and use a spray bottle of water to saturate the flap and let it dry.

Happy knitting!

P.S. I basically knit this on the fly for my own entertainment, and hashed out the pattern after the fact, so if you find any errors please let me know!

It’s June, so I suppose it’s time to wrap up May. I’ve finished five projects since last time, but one of them is a gift, so it will have to wait until later. Besides that, I finished both sets of paired shawls, so first up, Nocturne (Olatz):

As of note the yarn edging the Cosette is the same that the Olatz is knit in. Details about yarn and designers are in the previous post.

Then, I am quite excited to announce that my dragons have been slain! The two large shawls I needed to finish to complete the 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge are now complete. Nefertiti is a bit hard to photograph, since it’s over 6′ in length, but hopefully this will give a general idea of what it looks like.

The second large shawl is Branigan. Again, details are in the previous post.

As for June, I’m currently knitting my sister’s birthday present, a baby gift, a pair of simple socks in Knit Picks Felici in Rainbow, and a red shawl. There will be more information and pictures next time!

Right, so now I’ve waited so long to post my May WIPs that I now have May finished objects, so first up is my most recently finished project, Little Leaves by Susanna IC. It was a quite a charming project, and fast, even with the beading. It was knit in JulieSpins 420S in Muir Woods; gorgeous browns are one of Julie’s specialities.

I have another pair of shawls I’m knitting, which are also related in their own way. I’m knitting Olatz out of Madelinetosh Pastoral (discontinued) in Nocturne and Cosette in Malabrigo Worsted in Polar Morn, which will use the Pastoral for edging. The Olatz is almost complete, but I would like to put in one more repeat if I can, so I decided to go ahead and knit Cosette and see how much yarn I have leftover after I edge it.

Olatz is by Swallows Return. I have to admit that I did not like that the pattern was asymmetrical, so I ripped it out in order to mirror it.